The everlasting struggle between game companies and cheat sellers rages on, with recent developments to a complaint filed by Bungie at a Seattle federal court. The FPS game‘s developer is accusing Destiny 2 cheats seller AimJunkies of both copyright and trademark infringement for its ‘Destiny 2 Hacks’ toolset. TorrentFreak reports that U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly has now dismissed Bungie’s claims of copyright infringement, although the trademark infringement accusations still stand.
Bungie had success in its ongoing fight against cheat manufacturers earlier this year when it successfully sued GatorCheats alongside Valorant developer Riot Games. The lawsuit ended with a £2 million settlement and the shutdown of GatorCheats. However, Bungie’s case against AimJunkies has now hit a slight stumbling block with the Judge’s ruling that Bungie “has not pleaded sufficient facts to plausibly allege that AimJunkies copied constituent elements of Bungie’s work.”
This does not mean the end of the case, as Judge Zilly concluded that the trademark infringement case was suitably pled. This refers to AimJunkies’ unsolicited use of the Destiny name and logo in a manner which “is likely to cause confusion, mistake, or deception as to the source, origin, or authenticity of the cheat software.” The Judge notes Bungie’s claim “that it has invested substantial resources in marketing, advertising, and distributing” using the Destiny name and logo, meaning that its “false origin” claim (often tied into trademark infringement) is also being upheld.
Other claims in the lawsuit have been referred to arbitration, meaning those disputes will likely be resolved out of court. This is in accordance with Bungie’s own licence agreement, which states that all disputes other than copyright and trademark issues should be resolved by mandatory arbitration. Bungie also has the opportunity to file an amended copyright infringement claim with additional evidence, should it wish. You can read the full ruling here.
Bungie has had its own copyright issues recently, too, with a recent wave of Destiny 2 fan video takedowns being investigated after content creators and Bungie itself were hit with copyright infringement flags on YouTube.
If you’re playing Destiny 2, then be sure to check out our list of the best Destiny 2 Exotics in the current Season of the Risen. If you haven’t been hooked in by Bungie’s hugely popular space FPS, see why Rich called their recent Witch Queen campaign Bungie’s best expansion yet in his review.